10-pound bug wins three races

FORT ERIE, Ontario - Favorites dominated the first live card of the season at Fort Erie, winning six of the eight races last Saturday.

One of the rare exceptions came in the finale when the 4-year-old Tethra's Dream, one of two winners on the card for apprentice Richard Morrow, scored at $78 in a 4 1/2-furlong maiden claiming race.

Morrow, whose agent is Scotty Lane, ended the two-day weekend with three wins, bringing his career total to five and thus losing his 10-pound apprentice allowance.

Lane, who serves as agent for Rui Pimentel and Chad Beckon, had a great opening weekend as Beckon rode three winners and Pimentel won twice.

Beckon, the runner-up to last year's leading rider, the now retired Robbie King Jr., is a logical candidate to become the Fort's top jockey this season.

"It was a great start to the season for our team," said Lane.

Favorites weren't quite so dominant on last Sunday's program, winning three of the eight races.

* Peter Kyte has returned to the announcer's booth for a second year. Kyte has been active in both the Thoroughbred and Standardbred racing scene for a number of years and was a member of Woodbine Entertainment's HorsePlayer Interactive television network when that coverage debuted in 1999.

* Fort Erie appeared to lose a great deal when starter Drew Brown left to go to work at Woodbine a year ago. But his replacement, Andrew "Drew" Cady and his gate crew have maintained the high standards Brown set.

* Racing shifts to a Sunday-through-Tuesday schedule this week. The next Saturday card will be July 19.